Keep data safe? Pshaw.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Georgetown U lost a hard drive full of personal data on students and staff. Of course, if they get a credit freeze, they won't have as much to worry about.

(Image is used under the Pixabay license)

I'm not so sure we're ready to start messing with nature like this. It didn't work so well the last time, and that was just selective breeding.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 3.0 [SRC])

I'm putting out the call for all people who get money unexpectedly to take the unpopular route and use it to pay down some debt rather than spend it. The very idea that you are in a position to spend new money while you're in debt at all is why Americans and America is in so much trouble right now.

Embrace the philosophy of a total-money-makeover and work towards it. Even if it violates the implanted logic that businesses and the credit industry have forced upon you, work your way out of debt before starting new ones and learn to live debt free.

Now realistically, I will probably spend some of the money on something nice like going out to dinner or a small gift for my wife. Psychologically, many of us will need to spend at least some of the money, but I'm OK with doing that if you still apply the vast majority to outstanding debts.

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Like Phishing, Vishing entices you with a false e-mail but the difference is that they try to get you to call a phone number where you can be fleeced personally by one of their people.

Even if you think an e-mail is legitimate, never call the number provided. Look it up by some other means such as the phone book or from the given company's actual website.

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Consumeraffairs.com did a study of whether they could locate teen girls on MySpace and the results aren't surprising.

By doing simple searches with no special tools or gimmicks, they were easily able to find profiles of girls that were set to public (meaning anyone could read them) that contained more than enough information to find and contact them or their parents.

Parents need to make sure they're involved and knowledgeable about what their kids are doing online while resisting the temptation to ban kids from the Internet completely.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

I found this picture on Digg.com that has an easy 5 step process to hacking the voting machines to do your bidding. Remember when you go to vote soon, to thank your state's voting commission if they are using these well known, hackable, substandard, and completely worthless machines. Better yet sue them for incompetence or corruption (or both).

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Well good.

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My poor wife went to a website that I directed her to to buy something for me for Christmas. It turns out that website is a front where they take your money and give no product. If we had known about resellerratings.com, we'd have saved ourselves the hassle, but now we have to cancel the order and possibly get a new credit card issued.

Well, you can bet we'll be checking a site's rating before purchasing directly through a non-major site again.

Anyway, I'm ticked and I'm going to do everything I can to make life miserable for this slimeball. First I'm going to dispute the charges with my credit card and ask if they have any means of prosecution. Second, I'm going to try and get his hosting, domain name, and merchant accounts canceled (with no domain name, no hosting for his site, and no merchant account to take credit cards, I'm guessing it will be harder to scam people in the future). And, if I can, I'm going to see what agency is responsible for this kind of fraud and see what they can do about it.

I'll post updates here if I manage to get any of this accomplished.

(Image is used under the Pixabay license)

To make a phishing e-mail seem more legitimate, scammers are now using common language from banks such as:

Please remember that we will never ask for personal account information via email or web pages.

This gets you to lower your guard. Instead of having a web address to click on, they set up a phone number for you to call. If you call the number a savvy scammer will get you to provide as much information as they can get.

Don't fall for this stuff. If you ever recieve something that sounds like there's a problem with your accounts or credit cards, go to their website directly or call their regular phone number. Never depend on links, phone numbers, or any other information sent to you in an e-mail.

RIAA

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The RIAA has been able to run free for years suing just about anyone it can using dubious legal methods. Well, their glory days may be over. The Free Software Foundation has pledged funds to "pay fees and/or expenses of technical expert witnesses, forensic examiners, and other technical consultants assisting individuals named as defendants in non-commercial, peer-to-peer file sharing cases brought by the RIAA, EMI, SONY BMG, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Bros. Records, and their affiliated companies, such as Interscope, Arista, UMG, Fonovisa, Motown, Atlantic, Priority, and others".

That is awesome.